Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

ME 159 - Technical
Drawing
Lecture 3: Geometric Constructions
 Introduction
• Geometric construction is the construction of plane
figures such as triangles, polygons, circles, tangents,
etc., used in plane geometry.

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 Three Things to Note
• Use a good sharpened pencil
• Ensure thin constructional lines
• Do not erase the constructional lines that tend to
indicate the procedure

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Tools required for geometric drawing include

• Drawing board
• T-square
• Straight edge instrument (set-squares, etc.)
• A pair of Compasses

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 Lines
• A line is the trace of a point moving in space (not
necessarily a straight line)
• A straight line is the shortest distance between two points

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 Perpendicular Bisector of Line AB
• Given a line segment AB
• Open the compass more than half
of the distance between A and B,
and scribe arcs of the same radius
centred at A and B.
• Call the two points where these two
arcs meet C and D. Draw the line
between C and D.
• CD is the perpendicular bisector of
the line segment AB

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 Division of a line into a number of equal parts
• Draw a line from A at an acute angle to the given line AB
• Draw arcs with a constant radius R on the line drawn in step 1, to obtain
1, 2, 3, etc.
• Draw a line from the last point to B
• Obtain lines parallel to the line in step 3 through the other points to
intersect the line AB

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 Angles
• It is the inclination between two intersecting lines

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 Constructing 60º Angle
• Draw the line AB
• Place the point of the compass at A and draw an arc that passes
through B.
• Place the point of the compass at B and draw an arc that passes
through A. Let this arc cut the arc drawn in Step 2 at R.
• Join A to B. The angle BAR is 60º

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 Constructing 30º Angle
• Draw the line AB
• Place the point of the compass at A and draw an arc that passes
through B.
• Place the point of the compass at B and draw an arc that passes
through A. Let this arc cut the arc drawn in Step 2 at R.
• With the point of the compass still at B, draw an arc near T as shown.
• With the point of the compass at R, draw an arc to cut the arc drawn
in Step 4 at T.
• Join T to P. The angle BAT is 30º.

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 Construction 90º Angle
• Draw the line PA.
• Place the point of the compass at P and draw
an arc that cuts the arm at Q.
• Place the point of the compass at Q and draw
an arc of radius PQ that cuts the arc drawn in
Step 2 at R.
• With the point of the compass at R, draw an arc
of radius PQ to cut the arc drawn in Step 2 at S.
• With the point of the compass still at R, draw
another arc of radius PQ near T as shown.
• With the point of the compass at S, draw an arc
of radius PQ to cut the arc drawn in step 5 at T.
• Join T to P. The angle APT is 90º.

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 Bisecting an Angle
• Use our compass to draw an arc (DE) of any radius from point B that
intersects the two sides of the angle
• With the same radius, draw two more arcs, one will start from point D
and the other from point E to intersect at F.
• Use a ruler to draw a line connecting points B and F. This line is called
the bisector of angle ABC

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 Circles – Divide the circumference of a
circle into equal parts
• Draw the line AB that cuts the circle and goes
through the centre of the circle (diameter)
• Divide line AB into the number of parts
required
• With A and B as centres, draw arcs of radius
R=diameter to intersect each other to give point
P
• Draw a line from P through point 2 to cut the
other side of the circle (Point C)
• With C as centre, draw an arc with radius R=AC
to bisect the circle at point H
• Repeat step 5 for points G, F, E etc.

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 Polygons
To inscribe a square in a given circle

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 Inscribing a polygon in a given circle

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 Inscribing a polygon in a given circle

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 To construct a regular polygon given the length of a
side by the Approximate method
• Draw AB equal in length to the side of the regular
polygon
• Construct a perpendicular bisector of AB to cut AB
at O
• With OB=AB as radius and O as centre, draw an
arc to cut the perpendicular bisector at 4
• With B as centre and AB arc radius, draw an arc to
cut the bisector at 6
• Bisect line 6-4, 7-8, 8-9, etc., equal to 5-6
• To draw the regular pentagon, take 5 as centre and
draw a circle that passes through the point A and B.
• From B, cut the circle into 5 equal parts with the
radius equal to AB to obtain C, D, and E and join
the points by lines
• The points 4, 5, 6, etc., are centres of circumscribed
circles
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 To construct a regular polygon given the length of a
side by the Exact Method
• Draw line A-B corresponding to the
length of a side
• Centre B and radius of A-B,
prescribe a circle
• Extend the line A-B to intersect the
circle at 0
• Divide the line A-0 into the number
of sides of the polygon, example
into 5 for a 5-sided polygon.
Number the points on the line.
• With A as centre, prescribe an arc
of radius r=A-0 (diameter of circle)
• With 0 as centre, prescribe an arc of
radius r=A-0 (diameter of circle)
• The two arcs will intersect to give
the point P

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 To construct a regular polygon given the length of
a side by the Exact Method
• Draw a line through P and 2 to
intersect the opposite circumference
of the circle to give you point C
• Centre 0, radius AC prescribe an arc
to intersect circle to give point E
• A-B and B-E are the two adjacent
sides of polygon and therefore two
chords of the circum-circle to the
polygon
• Bisect A-B and B-E to locate the
centre of circum-circle at O
• Take the radius A-B and step it out
on the circum-circle
• Join the points marked on the circle
to get the regular polygon (eg.
Pentagon)

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 The Ellipse
• An ellipse is a regular oval shape traced by a point in a
plane such that the sum of its distance from the two focal
points is constant.
• It is the resulting shape when a cone is cut by an oblique
plane.

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 Construction an Ellipse using the
concentric circles method
• Draw two concentric circles whose
diameters are equal to the major and
minor axes of the ellipse
• Divide these concentric circles into a
number of even and equal parts. The
accuracy of the construction is
increased if the number of divisions is
reasonably high.
• Draw lines through the centre of the
circles through the points on the
circles.
• Draw horizontal lines through the
points of intersection on the minor
circle

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 Construction an Ellipse using the
concentric circles method
• Draw vertical lines through points
of intersection on the major
circle
• Draw vertical lines through points
of intersection on the major
circle
• The point of intersection of the
horizontal and the vertical lines
for each divisor gives a point on
the ellipse
• Join the intersection point.

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 Constructing an Ellipse using the four
centre method
• Draw a line AB that is equal to the
diameter of the major circle
• Construct a perpendicular bisector
to AB with the intersection being O.
• Mark out the minor diameter on the
perpendicular bisector (OC and
OD)
• Join A-C
• With O as centre and radius AO,
draw an arc to intersect the
perpendicular bisector at P
• With C as centre and radius CP,
draw an arc to cut line AC at E
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 Constructing an Ellipse using the four
centre method
• Construct the perpendicular
bisector of line AE to cut the
horizontal at M and the vertical at
N
• With M as centre, draw an arc with
radius AM
• With N as centre, draw an arc with
radius NC to tangent arc AM
• Transfer M and N to the other side
of the centre O to locate the other
centres M´ and N´
• The sizes of the arcs AM, BM´,
NC, NC´.
• Extension of the lines through M
to N locates tangency points of
the arcs
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 Assignment
1. Construct a regular polygon of the following sides given
a side AB to be 42 mm. Apply both the Exact and
Approximate Methods.
a) Five sided polygon
b) Seven sided polygon

2. Draw an ellipse having a major diameter of 54 mm and

a minor diameter of 33 mm by the Concentric circles
and Four-centre method

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 THANK YOU

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